Lottery games have become popular in many jurisdictions in the United States and elsewhere. As used in this disclosure, a “lottery game” includes a game that is played with a pool of predefined tickets or game play records that are each associated with a particular result in the game. Some of the predefined tickets or game play records are each associated with a respective winning result and thus represent winning tickets. Other predefined tickets or game play records in the pool are each associated with a respective losing result and thus represent losing tickets or game play records. Since the pool of tickets or game play records has a predefined number of tickets or game play records and a predefined number of winning and losing records, the pool has a predefined payout to players and predefined hold for the game operator. That is, assuming that all tickets or game play records in the pool are sold, the cumulative payout to the players is known as is the cumulative value in from ticket or game play record sales.
Traditional lottery games are played with a paper lottery ticket. These paper lottery tickets are commonly printed with graphics consistent with a theme of the game. The printed graphics for each respective ticket include some result indicator that is correlated to or indicates the result associated with the respective ticket. These result indicators are commonly covered or obscured at the time the ticket is sold. Once the player obtains the ticket, he or she may remove the cover or obscuring material to reveal the result indicator and thus the result associated with the ticket.
The paper tickets in a traditional lottery game are commonly produced at some manufacturing facility in books of tickets, each made up of a continuous roll of individual tickets or a continuous fan fold stack of individual tickets with the individual tickets separated by perforations or break lines. The tickets are randomly ordered in the ticket books or groups and are sold and distributed sequentially from the randomized group of tickets so that the results in the lottery game are distributed to players in a random order unknown to the players or ticket sellers.
Lottery games have been implemented in electronic form in which the tickets or game play records each comprise an electronic data structure rather than a physical paper ticket. An electronic data structure representing a chance in a lottery-type game will be referred to further in this disclosure as a “game play record.” These game play records may take on a number of different forms. On one end of the spectrum each game play record includes a result indicator, record identifier, and data that defines graphics that are used to display the result of the game play record to the player. At the other end of the spectrum, each game play record includes only a record identifier, a result indicator, and perhaps a table identifier and prize value. Regardless of the particular form of data structure used for the individual game play records, the game play records are commonly grouped in data files analogous to books of paper tickets and distributed in some random order from the file. Since the game play records are arranged in data files, the random distribution may be performed by randomizing the order of game play records in the respective data file and then distributing the game play records sequentially in that random order, or the game play records can be ordered in the data files and distributed randomly from the files.
The electronic lottery games may be implemented with a gaming system that includes a central processing system for storing a file or different files of game play records and for distributing the game play records to player terminals which are in communication with the central processing system. The player terminals include a display device for displaying information to the player, an arrangement for accepting wagers, and an arrangement for receiving inputs from the player. In this example electronic lottery system, a player enters the lottery game by making a game play request at a player terminal. In response to a game play request entered by the player, the central processing system assigns a particular game play record for the game play request and communicates to the player terminal either the assigned game play record or information regarding the assigned game play record. The player terminal then displays the result associated with the game play record assigned to the player.
Game designers have sought to add excitement to lottery games. One particular method of adding excitement to a lottery game is to give the player the ability to choose from a number of game play records or chances from the pool of records or chances. Traditional paper lottery games have done this by using tickets having multiple chances or result indicators which are initially obscured and allowing the player to select one or more of the chances/result indicators. In this arrangement, each different chance may represent a different game play record, and the player essentially chooses his or her game play record from the group printed on the ticket. U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,398 to Schneier, et al. discloses an electronically implemented system in which players make a selection from among a number of game play outcomes with each outcome representing a distinct chance in the game. In both of these prior art lottery game implementations, the results associated with game play records or the outcomes that are not selected by the player are not available for reuse. Thus, at least some of the game play records or outcomes making up the predetermined pool of records or outcomes are never used in these prior art systems and are essentially wasted.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,606 to Riendeau, et al. discloses a lottery-type gaming system in which files of electronic game play records are downloaded to a particular gaming terminal for use in satisfying game play requests. At the end of some gaming period, game play records remaining unused at the gaming terminal are communicated back to a central processing system and collected with other unused game play records and undistributed game play records. These collected game play records are then used to make files of game play records that are downloaded to gaming terminals for use in satisfying later game play requests. U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,606 did not, however, disclose any arrangement for reusing game play records remaining unselected after being assigned to a game play request initiated by a player.